Lena Waithe

Lena Waithe is an American actress, producer, and screenwriter who has become a transformative voice in contemporary television and film. Born on May 17, 1984 in Chicago, Illinois, she grew up on the South Side before moving to Evanston, where she cultivated an early passion for writing that she described as beginning at age seven. After graduating from Evanston Township High School, she earned a BFA in cinema and television arts from Columbia College Chicago in 2006, where mentors such as playwright Michael Fry encouraged her storytelling ambitions. Moving to Los Angeles, Waithe secured a position as an assistant to the executive producer of the sitcom Girlfriends and soon landed a cameo on The Comeback, paving the way for writing jobs on series like Bones and the Nickelodeon sitcom How to Rock. Her breakthrough came with the creation of the Showtime drama The Chi (2018‑present) and the BET comedy series Boomerang and Twenties, projects that draw heavily on her Chicago upbringing and aim to present nuanced portrayals of Black life. In 2015 she joined the Netflix series Master of None, where her performance as Denise and the Emmy‑winning episode “Thanksgiving” earned her the historic distinction of being the first African‑American woman to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series in 2017. Waithe has also written and produced the acclaimed crime romance Queen & Slim (2019) and served as executive producer on the horror anthology Them (2021‑present), while lending her voice to the Onward cyclops police officer Specter, Disney’s first openly queer animated character. Recognized by Time as one of the 100 Most Influential People in 2018 and featured on Fast Company’s Queer 50 list, she continues to champion LGBTQ+ and people‑of‑color representation through her production company Hillman Grad Productions, mentorship initiatives, and industry advocacy. Her personal life has included a marriage to content executive Alana Mayo (2019‑2021) and a publicly confirmed relationship with actress Cynthia Erivo, while she remains private about parenthood, with no publicly known children.